Why is Everybody so clueless on the importance of Desktop Search to the Masses?

55 million lines isn't too big 3 maybe 4 Gig. At 20,000,000 cps and
faster the first match will be up on the screen fast. Keep a copy of
that on your local PC. If you need a source module. Book it out and
change it as required.

First of all, it's more like 250 MB. But do you honestly believe a compiler wouldn't spit the dummy on a single 3 or 4 GB file? What's wrong with storing things in individual files?

What about banks? What about customer relationship databases? What about invoice and billing systems which process credit card payments? The real question is, what do you consider 'confidential'? For me, any personal communication - e.g. an email, a letter I wrote to a friend, a photo of me and my friends - is my personal, confidential information. So I take precautions to secure it. By the way, security doesn't inhibit portability, unless it's designed to do so. And there will always be loopholes. That is why there is legislation to ensure minimum standards are met with regard to confidentiality.

Nobody has solved secutiry issues yet. All they seem to do is prevent people from betting at their data.

I'm going to assume that "betting" is a typo for "getting", which makes more sense in that context. Given that the security issues are "gee, we sure hope noone can access our private data!", wouldn't preventing people from getting at the data solve the security issues?

As for the rest of your post, I hate to say it, but you're out of touch. Spreadsheets DO frequently get edited, presentations DO get made often and student info is encrypted, secured, and shared out to parents, teachers and students via restricted, passworded access. Networks, intranet applications and source control solve most of the issues I brought up, and your alternative solutions cause all kinds of headaches and hassles. I don't mean to be mean, I'm just being honest. And ask yourself honestly, why the FUCK would ANYONE want to be randomly shown a spreadsheet of a random month's earnings?!

A more philosophical question: you keep suggesting "easy" fixes to parts of your code. Why is it that you haven't made the fixes yourself, since they're so "easy"?

Mac / Linux rewrite NEEDED

Look, I hate to disappoint you, but there isn't a way to run your search on anything but Windows. There is no Visual Basic interpreter or compiler for the other platforms. Yes, there is some emulation possible with wine, but it would be very confusing for the user. The only way to get this to work on Mac or Linux is a complete rewrite.

s/hate/love/g

Does this program run on Vista as is? I was fairly sure VB5 was 16-bit, and therefore wouldn't execute under Vista.

Rewrite for 10,000 lines of code that is currently working shouldn't be that hard.

Spectate Swamp Search is fast from startup to shutdown

I happened to have the source code for Linux 2.6.23 lying around, so I ran a test:

This is how long your unindexed search will take to scan all of Linux's 300MB, if you're lucky. If I needed to actually find something, 2 and a half minutes is unacceptable, and I happen to have an extremely fast computer. Searching an index would be insanely faster. For example, finding a file:

In our universe, 0.3 seconds is a lot faster than 10 minutes.

This search should read from start to finish in 15 seconds for 300MB. Finding the first results and displaying them much much faster. Remember this search shows the results. Not some little simulation to the text. Text is readable. Not the case with most of the other Search Engines. A little bit of yellow surrounded by jibberish.

I can start up the program default to my notes file. default to display the last page. SEE it and default on the way out. In under 3 seconds. Your indexer may not have even indexed the latest changes. And to see the last page like this. IMPOSSIBLE

I suggest you send your source.txt to the Microsoft SharePoint Team and ask them to integrate the extract, random and video features.

Seriously. Somebody have a spare Swamp-Proof sarcasm detector?

Everyone with interesting video and pics can understand the need for random. 500Gig disks sequentially. Boooo

Swamp, please answer this straight. No ifs, buts or other shit, just plain, English (if possible) answers to the following questions:

How is your reply related to my post? If it is not related to my post, why are you quoting it? Urgent, I've been wondering all morning.

I do have masses of pics and a lot of video at home and I've never felt the need to view them randomly. While I do see a point in showing pics randomly (which I easily can with the software I'm using), what's the advantage in showing video randomly and why do you think that this feature is important for a search application? Also, would you please explain any special features you have added to the plain "play random video from a list of videos"-requirement that is not present in any other popular video player on the market? I mean, there must be something that makes the random feature of your "search" program special?

What do you mean by "500Gig disks sequentially"? That isn't even a sentence! Is this supposed to be related to the previous sentence (which would then read "... the need for random 500Gig disks sequentially", which doesn't seem to make sense)? Or do you mean "500Gig disks sequentially, boo!"? If you mean the latter, please explain what is wrong about playing videos and photos in their chronology?

Assuming your post is related to my quoted post: If everybody can understand the "need for random", why don't you contact Microsoft about it and tell them to integrate it with SharePoint? Stop talking, do it!

You are doing the same old lame stuff over and over! Instead of taking any action like answering questions, fixing your bugs, doing things people suggest, you keep repeating useless empty phrases like "Anyone can understand X", "People will see Y", "Oh I can do random video!". Have we seen demos yet? No! Did you post videos demonstrating your "search"? No! Did we get proof that your "search" actually works? No! Can you give us detailed specs so that the people who said would have a competition with you can write a similar tool in no-time? No! Do you have comparison of your "search" and other, popular search programs? No! (Why not? Because your "tool" doesn't even search anything but text files!)

This search should read from start to finish in 15 seconds for
300MB. Finding the first results and displaying them much much faster.
Remember this search shows the results. Not some little simulation to
the text. Text is readable. Not the case with most of the other Search
Engines. A little bit of yellow surrounded by jibberish.

B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T.!! Copernic does not only show a list of files that contain matches, but is also shows a proper preview where highlights the first occurence of text and even allows you to continue searching whithin that document! It shows pictures and videos as well. I have indexed my 300 Gig hard disk and it gives me all search results within less than 5 seconds.

I can start up the program default to my notes file. default to
display the last page. SEE it and default on the way out. In under 3
seconds. Your indexer may not have even indexed the latest changes. And
to see the last page like this. IMPOSSIBLE

B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T. again!! "My indexer" would index all your notes files about 100 times faster than you'll ever be able to manually edit your "search index"! So give me some real point that makes your tool "the only tool" anybody needs!! Can't? Thought so...

No Data is Secure with celphone cameras!

First of all, it's more like 250 MB. But do you honestly believe a compiler wouldn't spit the dummy on a single 3 or 4 GB file? What's wrong with storing things in individual files?

What about banks? What about customer relationship databases? What about invoice and billing systems which process credit card payments? The real question is, what do you consider 'confidential'? For me, any personal communication - e.g. an email, a letter I wrote to a friend, a photo of me and my friends - is my personal, confidential information. So I take precautions to secure it. By the way, security doesn't inhibit portability, unless it's designed to do so. And there will always be loopholes. That is why there is legislation to ensure minimum standards are met with regard to confidentiality.

Thanks for spotting the typo. I was too slow trying to use edit.

Banks know the risks and insure against data loss. What if you marks got out as a Kid and everybody could see you were as dumb as me. Wouldn't that be humiliating. Sue the school for millions. What is the critical reason for having that info on computers? 99.9% of users shouldn't need to worry about secutiry by not putting sensitive data on computers.

This search should read from start to finish in 15 seconds for 300MB. Finding the first results and displaying them much much faster. Remember this search shows the results. Not some little simulation to the text. Text is readable. Not the case with most of the other Search Engines. A little bit of <font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" color="#ffff00">yellow </font>surrounded by jibberish.

I can start up the program default to my notes file. default to display the last page. SEE it and default on the way out. In under 3 seconds. Your indexer may not have even indexed the latest changes. And to see the last page like this. IMPOSSIBLE

What is the critical reason for having that info on computers? 99.9% of users shouldn't need to worry about secutiry by not putting sensitive data on computers.

Dear King Bullshit III.,

are you aware of the fact that Computers where invented for the sole purpose of processing data? They can process and store data. That's what they are built for. By the way, some the critical reasons for storing sensitive data on computer systems are:

This search should read from start to finish in 15 seconds for 300MB.
Finding the first results and displaying them much much faster.
Remember this search shows the results. Not some little simulation to
the text. Text is readable. Not the case with most of the other Search
Engines. A little bit of yellow surrounded by jibberish.

Are you counting the time needed to import the data into your "database" ?

Other programs are doing it automatically. And are generally much more user friendly (no need to remember over 20 commands like ss, ww, wtf etc.).

I have been following this thread from the start and this is my sumup of your good and bad ideas :

99.9% of users shouldn't need to worry about secutiry by not putting sensitive data on computers.

So where do we put it? You suggest we back it up onto DVDs and CDs? An uneditable medium, not to mention that it is still not physically secure. Someone could break into your SwampShack and steal your CDs and DVDs along with your computer and camcorder. Then how would you video in a book?

99.9% of users shouldn't need to worry about secutiry by not putting sensitive data on computers.

So where do we put it? You suggest we back it up onto DVDs and CDs? An uneditable medium, not to mention that it is still not physically secure. Someone could break into your SwampShack and steal your CDs and DVDs along with your computer and camcorder. Then how would you video in a book?

No, you must do what Batman did on the episode I saw of "The Batman" yesterday (note: this episode takes place in the future, mostly when Batman is nearly crippled by old age, the rest 1000 years in the future when Mr. Freeze is reawakened and wreaking havoc), since all the hard-drives will have decayed to the point of being unreadable he wrote in Currier New every 1 and 0 that comprised a video file, this was written on the support beams for the bat-cave. They did a 3D scan of all the beams and converted the text into a video explaining how to defeat Mr Freeze.

Look, I hate to disappoint you, but there isn't a way to run your search on anything but Windows. There is no Visual Basic interpreter or compiler for the other platforms. Yes, there is some emulation possible with wine, but it would be very confusing for the user. The only way to get this to work on Mac or Linux is a complete rewrite.

s/hate/love/g

Does this program run on Vista as is? I was fairly sure VB5 was 16-bit, and therefore wouldn't execute under Vista.

Rewrite for 10,000 lines of code that is currently working shouldn't be that hard.

now you see, no-one thinks it IS currently working!

i fear you are delusional, please seek help. You appear to have been following this thing for years, surely the fact that no-one is interested [and that they in fact say this is terrible and badly written/executed] tells you that?!

As you can see, you don't need to be a techno-babbling geek to use SSDS:

what the .... was that????

what? ? ? !!! what was that? it quickly did.... nothing i can see.
i dont understand what it was or what it did. or how to use it.
i didnt see how to make it search for anything. i think it might be broken.
it was more cryptic than looking at dos orr unix without knowing any commands
im wondering, did i just run a hacker's access control on my machine?
what was that ? ...there's no documentation to be found. anywhere.
& no mention of this anywhere else on the net. ...have I been had?

-- Posted by hopeful on Sunday, June 04, 2006

Whoa! This looks sort of like documentation from Swamp... and it's so simple, your grandma can figure it out!

Search is what this program does

Hi Jon
to search my inmail.txt file (I have them all back to 1996)
at prompt #1 enter "inmail.txt"
at prompt #2 enter "C" for full context display or "S" for matching lines display
at prompt #3 enter "from:/SpectateSwamp" The "/" is the field seperator and
can be changed in the control.txt file up to 6 elements can be listed here.
and you are off searching you can display a previous match by entering "p"
enter "b" to back up one screen and display again
enter "a" to continue complete display from the latest match.

This is probably the best place to replay to search questions for now.

I think there's a way we can win! All we need to do is come up with one key question, a well-worded specific question which will highlight one of the application's most crippling flaws, and repeatedly and clearly ask SpectateSwamp that question until he answers, and is forced to admit the inadequecy of his app and, by extension, the futility of his very existence.

We could focus on the "manual indexing" issue- a question such as "How long would it take to manually index a terabyte of assorted files for use with SSsearch? How long does google desktop search take to index the same data? With those two figures in mind, how many SSsearch searches would I have to perform to make up the lost time, assuming that SSsearch is one second per search faster than google?"

We could focus on usability- "When handed a clean windows XP workstation and a copy of the SSsearch executable, how long would it take a moderately experienced computer user to become sufficiently familiar with SSsearch to be able to use it efficiently? How long would it take the same user to become equally efficient with google desktop search?"

We could focus on the code itself- "What justification can you provide for coding in a manner completely at odds with the general standards of the programming community? If you were to be incapacitated in some way in the near future, how much time do you believe it would take for another programmer, with no background knowledge of SSsearch, to step in and resume development of the app?"

We could even focus on some of the application's "features"- "Why does the SSsearch application have the ability to display randomly-chosen files from a user's hard disk? Why does SSsearch have the ability to scroll motivational quotes and political messages in the main window during the search process? Can you provide us with any market analysis or user feedback which in any way supports the inclusion of these features?"

But I suggest we don't pull our punches. I suggest we cut SpectateSwamp to the quick, really hit him where it hurts with the toughest, most controversial question of all...

Specatate - the general public has reviewed SSDS and it isn't pretty

So Spectate, one of your major issues the 'geeks' on this site is that we are not the general public who your application is designed for. So what do you have to say about the reviews on the sites above where you have posted your application? Several of them feel as if your application is worthless, one thinks that is a hacker tool/spyware/virus.

It is apparent the general public doesn't see the good in your application either. Just admit it, you are a bored 15 year old, wanna be geek - but not quite bright enough, still a virgin, who's pastime is lurking in techno geek sites stiring up trouble.

"Why does the SSsearch application have the ability to display randomly-chosen files from a user's hard disk?

Answer: I like my epileptic seizures from having random pictures flash up at 20-30fps. The warm wet feeling in my pants when I lose bladder and bowel control makes the hours of slogging through the bush to record 10 seconds of a mouse scampering so I can then video it again off the screen for Youtube totally worth it.

Answer followup: You need Swamp Search. It's the only tool you'll ever need. I know. I'm a total tool myself.

Random file display, and other insanity

SpectateSwamp:

Okay, here's some resounding points I wish to make regarding SwampSearch:

1. When someone is searching for something, they want ONE or TWO items, people don't want to be shown random multimedia from their hard disk, when someone searches for something, they want as I said, ONE or TWO results, then they would go off and work on that file with the appropreate software (possible video editing or opening their photo in Photoshop)

On this one point, I think you've been watching TV too long and think searching consists of flickering through media when that actually SLOWS DOWN searches. when I've developed benchmarking proglets, I've noticed that displaying what the search is doing precicely actually slows it down at least 10 times when if it were to be completely done behind the scenes, it would be that much faster

2. Regarding securrity: Like or nor not, people use computers for finances (online banking for example)

3. We are no longer in the ages of your old systems where search requires extensive typing of commands, we are in the day and age where search has one purpose, and one purpose alone: you type in your terms and get results WITHOUT prior work, where the search tool does ALL The work for the user, your tool has no facilitation and requires the user to do all the work in compiling that big text file.

Now, 2 questions, I want straight answers for:

1. If someone has a program they are required to use for work and CANNOT merge their files because that program they use for work would reject it, how would you suggest they proceed to use your tool?

2. Can your tool replace an Operating System and/or all the programs an operating system can run? (Yes or no - give me one of those two and you can proceed to explain yourself)

and no, I can't use parametric queries as this is one small part of a large union query which is built dynamically

That's a SpectateSwamp-worthy excuse and I don't want to see it repeated on these forums anymore.

This is what you do... you have two namespaces.

1) Common subexpressions that your code creates directly ... you can use $variable subtitution for these in strings

2) Tainted information from users (form data, retrieved data from another query), use something like @variable@ for these in your query strings during building.

Right before you send your statement for dispatch, you run it through a search and replace that looks for @[a-z][a-z]*@, replaces it with a ':' or whatever you need for binding, and pushes the value of $_GET['variable'] or whatever onto the end a bind values array. It will just so happen that the nth : matched in the string will be the nth element of the bind array you build in this fashion, so it all works out when you prepare/execute using these artifacts.

You get added benefits for doing it this way.

1) No escaping is necessary at any stage. Localization never becomes an issue.

2) You can safely print intermediate parts of the query string for debugging without worrying about passwords or userids contaminating the logfiles.

3) The intermediate statements have the to-be-bound parameters clearly labeled for easier debugging.

4) You can tell the potentially user-taintable from untaintable substitutions in your source code apart right away; especially prudent for when you need to do audits against remote exploits.

And the code to do all of that extra work can be one function that just wraps your call to mysql_query or whatever. Pass it the built string, the db handle, and a hash containing name/value pairs you want bound. It returns what the execute returns. Throws an exception if the SQL doesn't compile at prepare.

Remember this search shows the results. Not some little simulation to the text. Text is readable. Not the case with most of the other Search Engines. A little bit of yellow surrounded by jibberish.

I can start up the program default to my notes file. default to display the last page. SEE it and default on the way out. In under 3 seconds. Your indexer may not have even indexed the latest changes. And to see the last page like this. IMPOSSIBLE

Swampy, the difference is:

we, when we search, are provided by the actual file in which the found search hit is present

you, when you search, are provided with the full text of your index file

This results in a different path when making changes to said file:

we open the file, make changes

you need to look up what the actual name of the file is, remember where the actual file is stored, and thén can start making changes

On top of that, after the change is made, we have different paths to take to find the change:

we use our search again to find the changed segment of the file, and the change appears immediately, so we can immediately start editing the file agan

yo, on the other hand, need to re-merge all your files into one big index file again, before you can start searching for the changed segment within your index

I challenge you to try these steps within a minute with your tool. Any other user here can do it in less than 30 seconds. And the added benefit: none of us had to follow a half day of training on how to use your application.

Sensitive Data will break you.

On the other hand - could you please give me reasons for NOT having sensitive data on computers? And please also provide alternative, more secure storage possibilities for sensitive data.

I'm sure you wouldn't keep sensitive data on your own computer, if there was the possibility your computer could get hacked and the DATA would ruin you. People aren't so concerned with School systems and Businesses. But they won't risk their own future. If you have sensitive personal data. Make sure it's on your oldest computer. When the police come. Use the sledge hammer that is sitting beside it. That would make it a little more secure.

I'm sure you wouldn't keep sensitive data on your own computer, if there was the possibility your computer could get hacked and the DATA would ruin you. People aren't so concerned with School systems and Businesses. But they won't risk their own future. If you have sensitive personal data. Make sure it's on your oldest computer. When the police come. Use the sledge hammer that is sitting beside it. That would make it a little more secure.

You're confusing "sensitive" and "illegal". And believe it or not, people are MORE concerned with school and business data than with your videos of your trip to Kazblekistan.

On the other hand - could you please give me reasons for NOT having sensitive data on computers? And please also provide alternative, more secure storage possibilities for sensitive data.

I'm sure you wouldn't keep sensitive data on your own computer, if there was the possibility your computer could get hacked and the DATA would ruin you.

I am keeping sensitive data on my computer, even though my computer might get hacked. There's always the danger of your computer getting hacked - as soon as it is attached to the outside world (see -> Internet). But that doesn't keep me from keeping data on my machine, as I'm doing my best to protect it. I need to keep sensitive information somewhere. If anybody breaks into my house and steals my bank information from a paper folder, I have also done my best to protect it (I locked to doors), but still it's gone. I don't see the need to turn paranoid over my sensitive data as long as I do my best to keep it safe.

People aren't so concerned with School systems and Businesses. But they won't risk their own future. If you have sensitive personal data. Make sure it's on your oldest computer. When the police come. Use the sledge hammer that is sitting beside it. That would make it a little more secure.

Oh boy - how often do I need to write the word: BULLSHIT!!! I'm not risking my future by keeping my stuff on my PC! I'm risking my future when I keep my sensitive data on my PC and put it out in the front yard with a sign saying "Please take my data - the password is ....". But as long as I'm doing my best to secure my data there's little to no risk for me.

I know too little about Canada or the US (though I've been to both places), but here in Germany, unless you've done something terribly wrong or illegal, the Cops don't search your house! If you've done something illegal, you're done anyway - no need to hide your personal data, as in that case (having the proper papers) they are even allowed to view your data.

But keeping a sledge hammer and destroy my PC as soon as they enter my house - how stupid can you get? Not only did you destroy your own data (which ruins you anyway), you've already prevented the Cops from finding potential evidence, which is illegal in Germany. At least we now know the kind of hammer you're using to "type" or VB source code.

Stop bloating out your stupid ideas on data security while you obviously have no idea how to keep data on your PC (do I need to say "merged text file"?) at all, let alone keeping it safe. Try to concentrate on the challenges and direct questions you have been asked.

So what is the point of computing, then? I don't think it is just about showing random files.

The point of computing is to get the masses on computers. Using their digital cameras and camcorders. Not just for the bit fiddlers to complicate.

The point of computing is video editing and photo work? Oh boy... Tell me one thing: If you shake your head, does it go "dong, dong, dong" inside? Just wondering - one's heard about shrinking brains in the past...

Indexing hogs your computer

Are you counting the time needed to import the data into your "database" ?

Other programs are doing it automatically. And are generally much more user friendly (no need to remember over 20 commands like ss, ww, wtf etc.).

I have been following this thread from the start and this is my sumup of your good and bad ideas :

There should be an opensource search application -> Good Idea

How not to do such app -> check out your code

I'd bet my bottom dollar that the time to Merge the target files would be faster than creating an index. The merge is a directory then a file read and append file read and append. The indexing would have to do a file read and create the index wouldn't it. And a ton of bit fiddling in between.

Know a few commands and be in control of your computer future. That's the choice. Learn all you need to know in a half day at Spectate Swamp Shack.

How not to do an app. I just knew I should have spent some time cleaning up the code. NOT

Everything is Illegal

I'm sure you wouldn't keep sensitive data on your own computer, if there was the possibility your computer could get hacked and the DATA would ruin you. People aren't so concerned with School systems and Businesses. But they won't risk their own future. If you have sensitive personal data. Make sure it's on your oldest computer. When the police come. Use the sledge hammer that is sitting beside it. That would make it a little more secure.

You're confusing "sensitive" and "illegal". And believe it or not, people are MORE concerned with school and business data than with your videos of your trip to Kazblekistan.

Everything you video could be illegal. There are 30,000 laws on the books in my home province. Probably more at the federal level. If school records got out and the resultant lawsuit bankrupted the school. Then people would be concerned. The common man has no need for such security. So just quit yapping about it.

I'm sure you wouldn't keep sensitive data on your own computer, if there was the possibility your computer could get hacked and the DATA would ruin you. People aren't so concerned with School systems and Businesses. But they won't risk their own future. If you have sensitive personal data. Make sure it's on your oldest computer. When the police come. Use the sledge hammer that is sitting beside it. That would make it a little more secure.

You're confusing "sensitive" and "illegal". And believe it or not, people are MORE concerned with school and business data than with your videos of your trip to Kazblekistan.

Everything you video could be illegal. There are 30,000 laws on the books in my home province. Probably more at the federal level. If school records got out and the resultant lawsuit bankrupted the school. Then people would be concerned. The common man has no need for such security. So just quit yapping about it.

So you say that:

a) Videoing could be illegal

b) The point of computing is to get people to do only private video stuff with their computer

c) Keeping sensitive stuff on your computer can get you into trouble

In summary you are saying that people should not be using computers for anything, as

a) Videos and pics are private stuff, and private stuff should not be kept on your computer

b) Videos and pics can be illegal, and you should never ever have anything illegal on your computer

What are you afraid of. It's warm in the Swamp

The things people with video cameras should be concerned with. Not how to navigate the maze of computerdome. To spend years being considered computer illeterate by the likes of this forum. I know way way less than most of you. And hope to know even less about computers in the next few years. Computer knowledge just isn't needed if you use it like I do. The program source is there and the executable works. What are you afraid of?

The point of computing is to get the masses on computers. Using their digital cameras and camcorders. Not just for the bit fiddlers to complicate.

GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS. The point of computing (or any product for that matter) is to make one's life better (simpler/richer/do something quicker/cheaper).

The first computer was created to help the US Military (forget which branch) calculate mortar shell trajection. They used to have rooms of PhD mathematicians calculating them. Then, they had one computer calculating them quicker AND cheaper. At the time, the "masses" being on computers had nothing to do with it.

OTOH, you may have meant that the point of your app is to get the masses on computers. It's a horrible selling point. Halo is a good selling point for getting a computer. Hell even Solitaire is a better selling point than your app.

The common man has no need for such security. So just quit yapping about it.

Yes, he/she does. Don't be so immature. I'm not yapping any more than you are. Security is important; it's one of the reasons the internet can be trusted.

I'm just saying. If you keep your sensitive data off the computer. Then the rest you can share. Computer security should way way way down on the list of priorities for most computer users. Security just isn't a concern for me.

I'm just saying. If you keep your sensitive data off the computer. Then the rest you can share. Computer security should way way way down on the list of priorities for most computer users. Security just isn't a concern for me.

WRONG. Anyone who's connected to the Internet needs to know how to protect themselves from attacks, virii, spyware, etc. Anyone who works in a corporate network needs have some basic understanding of file permissions and such. Anyone who actually sets up and deals with computers, networks or internet connections for a living should be intimately familiar with digital security, because it should be a major focus for their job.

You know, it IS possible to share SOME data on a system that has sensitive data on it while still keeping the sensitive data hidden.

Based on the statement above... If SSDS was a web-based app, think of all the SQL injection you could do...

The things people with video cameras should be concerned with. Not how to navigate the maze of computerdome. To spend years being considered computer illeterate by the likes of this forum. I know way way less than most of you. And hope to know even less about computers in the next few years. Computer knowledge just isn't needed if you use it like I do. The program source is there and the executable works. What are you afraid of?

I want to point out that in the time it's taken you to argue on this forum, you could have properly learned how a filesystem and directory structure work, thereby making your product (and life) obsolete.

I'm afraid of FUD-packers like you ruining people's computers. Yes, computers are scary, but the four hours+ that it takes to learn your app, one could to many better things, like the aforementioned learning how a filesystem works, or bashing SpectateSwamp's head in with the conveniently placed sledgehammer.

Security sends Sharing out the Window.

The point of computing is to get the masses on computers. Using their digital cameras and camcorders. Not just for the bit fiddlers to complicate.

GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS. The point of computing (or any product for that matter) is to make one's life better (simpler/richer/do something quicker/cheaper).

The first computer was created to help the US Military (forget which branch) calculate mortar shell trajection. They used to have rooms of PhD mathematicians calculating them. Then, they had one computer calculating them quicker AND cheaper. At the time, the "masses" being on computers had nothing to do with it.

OTOH, you may have meant that the point of your app is to get the masses on computers. It's a horrible selling point. Halo is a good selling point for getting a computer. Hell even Solitaire is a better selling point than your app.

What good is one computer for each child when computer people strive to keep the uninitiated out. With this search and a camcorder they will have the upper hand. I like playing Solitaire with cards. It's easier to cheat.

Did I mention cover completely with the pile of Dog Poop from it's nearby container.

No, but if you insist... Forensic police investigators have been in worse conditions than to clean up dog poo. Hell, you could safely hose off your computer before starting to open up the scrap metal that used to be your computer, and to read the physical drive platters. Or does your dog have magnetical excrements?